Coincidently Fishy I found this beastie on my dahlia this morning. I think it is an angle shade.
As far as I know they don't change colour which leaves me wondering if it knew it was the same colour as the Honka, thereby protecting itself from predators...
Fishy, I wonder if your caterpillar might be a knot grass caterpillar, it's a bit blurry, but it looks like it has red between the white marks?
Victoria, yours definitely looks like an angle shades moth, with a rather large poop on the petal, teehee. Caterpillars do change colour when they start to pupate, but not to blend in like a chameleon.
Similar to fishy's above, but pale colour, two green stripes and a yellow head. I put it in the achillea as I think that's where it fell out from.
This one looks a bit odd and I can't ID it. The first picture is the truest colour but on the second with the flash on it highlights some horizontal yellow blobs across the body...what could that be, does anyone know?
That's what I thought Fishy But based on elimination of others rather than selection...I found another greener one in the achillea a bit later. I also disturbed a brown moth and a thousand mini harvestmen/ harvestmans so I gave up what I was doing in the end... Glad to know there're bugs in the unkempt yarrow field though
OK back - is it possible your second/third pics could be your Angel Shade caterpillar Victoria? If you look at the other markings,faint white lines running along the body.But the yellow blobs don't fit in,unless they are some kind of secretion?
Oh and while mowing the lawn today I disturbed a lovely Yellow Underwing Moth
I think I'm going to invest in a proper butterfly/moth encyclopaedia. I had one as a kid - it was hand illustrated and for ages I thought there were butterflies with 2 different coloured wings, not realising one side was supposed to be an image of the underside of the wing
The yellow blobs look odd to me too- at first I thought they were sporadic horizontal lines until I zoomed in on the photos. It wasn't injured or anything so I don't know what it might be secreting. I was thinking of your parasitic wasp but that lays inside the caterpillar? Not on it...
Oh yes the Ichneumon Wasp,they do lay their eggs inside.At least most species do I think.However,'if' there is an Ichneumon wasp lava eating away inside,the caterpillar would probably not be doing much. I had two green caterpillars (never did ID them) that I'm positive were parasitised and they literally didn't move for about a week until I prodded them and they were dead. Does your caterpillar respond if you nudge it?
I think I need a good encyclopaedia too. Google's images are great but can sometimes be random. I really don't know why each species of caterpillar can't have the name printed along its back? Preferably in English
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Coincidently Fishy I found this beastie on my dahlia this morning. I think it is an angle shade.
As far as I know they don't change colour which leaves me wondering if it knew it was the same colour as the Honka, thereby protecting itself from predators...
Please ignore what I assume is a giant poo
Fishy, I wonder if your caterpillar might be a knot grass caterpillar, it's a bit blurry, but it looks like it has red between the white marks?
Victoria, yours definitely looks like an angle shades moth, with a rather large poop on the petal, teehee. Caterpillars do change colour when they start to pupate, but not to blend in like a chameleon.
You may be right MM,so that's a possible three candidates.
I just googled Angel Shades moth and what a variation in caterpillar colour!! Some are bright green?
Found these interesting dudes today:
Similar to fishy's above, but pale colour, two green stripes and a yellow head. I put it in the achillea as I think that's where it fell out from.
This one looks a bit odd and I can't ID it. The first picture is the truest colour but on the second with the flash on it highlights some horizontal yellow blobs across the body...what could that be, does anyone know?
Victoria - I've been trawling through google's images and all I can come up with is perhaps a colour variation of the Buff Ermine?
I'll have a look at the other now....
That's what I thought Fishy
But based on elimination of others rather than selection...I found another greener one in the achillea a bit later. I also disturbed a brown moth and a thousand mini harvestmen/ harvestmans so I gave up what I was doing in the end...
Glad to know there're bugs in the unkempt yarrow field though
OK back - is it possible your second/third pics could be your Angel Shade caterpillar Victoria? If you look at the other markings,faint white lines running along the body.But the yellow blobs don't fit in,unless they are some kind of secretion?
Oh and while mowing the lawn today I disturbed a lovely Yellow Underwing Moth
That's a nice looking moth
I think I'm going to invest in a proper butterfly/moth encyclopaedia. I had one as a kid - it was hand illustrated and for ages I thought there were butterflies with 2 different coloured wings, not realising one side was supposed to be an image of the underside of the wing
The yellow blobs look odd to me too- at first I thought they were sporadic horizontal lines until I zoomed in on the photos. It wasn't injured or anything so I don't know what it might be secreting. I was thinking of your parasitic wasp but that lays inside the caterpillar? Not on it...
Oh yes the Ichneumon Wasp,they do lay their eggs inside.At least most species do I think.However,'if' there is an Ichneumon wasp lava eating away inside,the caterpillar would probably not be doing much. I had two green caterpillars (never did ID them) that I'm positive were parasitised and they literally didn't move for about a week until I prodded them and they were dead. Does your caterpillar respond if you nudge it?
I think I need a good encyclopaedia too. Google's images are great but can sometimes be random. I really don't know why each species of caterpillar can't have the name printed along its back? Preferably in English
I didn't poke it but it was fine. It wandered off onto another slab and I lost sight of it after that.
Name tags would be a great idea